Apparatus for fastening plies of sheet material together



May 5, 1970 WEIDENFELD ErAL 3,510,044

APPARATUS FOR FASTENING PLIES OF SHEET MATERIAL TOGETHER 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Oct. 23, 1967 F/GJ INVENTORS ABRAHAM WEIDENFELD LOUIS W H RSCH BY gag/mm ATTORNEY y 5, 1970 A. WEIDENFELD ErAL 3,510,044

APPARATUS FOR FASTENING PLIES OF SHEET MATERIAL TOGETHER Filed Oct. 23, 1967 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 FIG.3

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1/32 I 20 A 2% /26 V /24 /22 ABRAHAM v I g ELD LOUlS W. HIRSC BY /04 ATTORNEY United. States Patent Office 3,510,044 Patented May 5, 1970 3,510,044 APPARATUS FOR FASTENING PLIES F SHEET MATERIAL TOGETHER Abraham Weidenfeld, 714 Wilmot Road, Scarsdale, N.Y.

10510, and Louis W. Hirsch, 411 Windsor Road, Englewood, NJ. 07631 Filed Oct. 23, 1967, Ser. No. 677,434 Int. Cl. B25c /02; 1327f 7/04 U.S. Cl. 227--118 4 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE An apparatus for punching, through a plurality of plies of sheet material, a plurality of fasteners which fasten the plies of sheet material together and may also serve as feet for handbags. The apparatus includes a plurality of punch means for respectively punching fasteners through the plies of sheet material and a base means which supports the plurality of punch means for movement one relative to another, to locate the fasteners at predetermined locations with respect to each other. Four punch means are provided on the base means. One of these punch means is stationary on the base means, and a pair of guide means coact with two other punch means and the base means to guide these two other punch means for movement respectively along straight paths which are mutually perpendicular to each other and which intersect each other at the location of the stationary punch means. A third guide means coacts with the fourth punch means and the base means to guide the fourth punch means for movement along a pair of straight, mutually perpendicular paths, and these latter mutually perpendicular paths are respectively parallel to the paths along which the abovementioned other two punch means are respectively guided. This fourth punch means and the stationary punch means are respectively located on opposite sides of a straight line which extends between the fourth and the stationary punch means and through the other two punch means so that the fourth punch means is situated diagonally opposite the stationary punch means.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to apparatus for fastening plies of sheet material together.

At the present time, there are known punches capable of punching fastener studs through plies of sheet material so as to fasten the plies together. For example, in the manufacture of handbags or the like, punches of this type are customarily used. The headed studs which are driven by the punches through the plies of sheet material and sometimes used as feet for the handbag generally have a pair of prongs which are clinched together after they pass through the plies of material.

At the present time, it is customary to apply fasteners of this type one at a time. The operations are tedious, time-consuming, and involve considerable labor costs.

While it has already been proposed to provide a plurality of devices for simultaneously driving fasteners through sheet material, these fasteners are invariably located along a single straight line. In fastening together plies of sheet material at a number of locations which are not located along a single straight line, considerable difficulties are encountered, and up to the present time, it has been necessary to resort to manual operations for this purpose.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is accordingly a primary object of the present invention to provide an apparatus capable of simultaneously driving a plurality of fasteners, through plies of sheet material, at locations which are not located along a common straight line.

In particular, it is an object of the invention to provide an apparatus of this type which is capable of being adjusted so as to vary the location of the fasteners, and thus avoid limiting the apparatus to a single predetermined relative position of the fasteners.

In addition, it is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus capable of simultaneously applying four fasteners through plies of sheet material with these fasteners respectively located at the corners of a polygon.

In addition, it is an object of the present invention to provide a structure of this latter type which is adjustable so that the locations of the four fasteners relative to each other can be adjusted.

Also, the objects of the present invention include the provision of a structure of this latter type which provides a wide range of possible adjustments of the locations of the fasteners relative to each other.

In addition, it is an object of the invention to provide a structure of this type which is very simple to manipulate whenever it is desired to change the location of the fasteners relative to each other.

In accordance with the invention, a plurality of punch means are provided for punching a plurality of fasteners, simultaneously, through plies of sheet material so as to fasten the plies together. A base means carries the plurality of punch means so as to support them for movement, one relative to another, and in accordance with the invention, there are at least three punch means. One of these punch means is stationary while a pair of guide means coact with the other two punch means and base means to guide the other two punch means for movement with respect to each other and with respect to the one stationary punch means along a pair of paths which do not coincide and which are not parallel to each other.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The invention is illustrated by way of example in the accompanying drawings which form part of this application and in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic top plan view of one possible embodiment of an apparatus according to the invention.

FIG. 2 is a front elevation of the apparatus of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a partly sectional schematic elevation showing details of one of the punch means.

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary sectional elevation taken along line 44 of FIG. 1, in the direction of the arrows and showing the details of a guide means.

FIG. 5 is a sectional elevation taken along line 5-5 of FIG. 1, and showing further details of a guide means.

FIG. 6 is a schematic illustration of the electrical and pneumatic network for actuating the punch means.

DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now to FIG. 1, the apparatus 10 of the invention, which is illustrated therein, includes a base means 12 and a plurality of punch means 14, 1'6, 18, and 20, which are carried by the base means for movement one with respect to another in a manner described in greater detail below.

All of these punch means, 14, 16, 18, 20 are identical, and the details of the punch means 18 are shown schematically in FIG. 3. Thus, each punch means includes a support plate 22 which carries a hopper 24 forming a circular path for guiding the fasteners toward and then down a chute 26. These fasteners 28 are in the form of studs having a pair of downwardly directed prongs or legs which are to penetrate through the goods. Thus, the chutes 26 coact with the fasteners 28 to guide the latter for down- Ward movement while holding the fasteners, one next to the other, with their heads up and their pronged legs directed downwardly.

As is indicated in FIG. 3, each fastener is received in a fork 30 carried by a punch 32 which terminates in a bottom punch end 34. A plate 36 is formed with an opening through which the punch 32 slidably extends so that the plate 36 is slidable along the punch 32, and the plate 36 carries a pivot 38 for pivotally supporting the fork 30. In this way, the fork 30 can be swung between the solid and dot-dash line positions indicated in FIG. 3.

The punch 32 terminates at its upper end in a collar 40 against which the top end of a coil spring '41 presses, this spring 41 being coiled about the punch 32 between the collar 40 and the plate 36. The spring 41 urges the plate 36 downwardly against a stop ring 42 which is fixedly carried by the punch 32.

At the upper part of each punch means is a pneumatic cylinder-and-piston assembly 44, the piston of which terminates in a plate 46 located over a plunger 48 of a piston which includes an extension 50 fixed to the top end of the punch 32. The coaxial elements 48 and 50 are fixed to and extend in opposite directions from a piston which is slidable in a pneumatic cylinder 52 which is carried by a stationary part of the frame of the punch means. 'In a manner which is described below, the pneumatic assem: bly 44 is actuated by the operator so as to lower the plate 46 and thus lower the elements 48 and 50 to simultaneously lower the entire punch 32 with the structure carried thereby only until the stud 28 carried by fork 30 penetrates the goods 57 and is supported between punch 34 and the goods. At this latter instant, the plate 46 closes a microswitch 54 which simultaneously brings about actuation of the pneumatic cylinder-and-piston assembly 52 as Well as a pneumatic cylinder-and-piston assembly 56. The assembly 56 acts on the fork 30 to retract the latter to dot-dash line position shown in FIG. 3, thus leaving the stud penetrating through the plies of sheet material which are to be connected together, and the pneumatic cylinder-and-piston assembly 52 acts at this time to drive the punch downwardly through a further relatively small increment which is sufiicient to clinch the pronged legs of the fastener 28 together in a clinching die 58. Then a pneumatic cylinder-and-piston assembly 60, which is beneath the support plate 22, is actuated in a manner described below so as to drive a lower punch 62 upwardly through aligned bores of the support 22 and the clinching die 58 into the latter. In this way, the top end of the punch 62 engages the clinched legs of the stud to flatten these legs against the underside of the fastened plies.

As was pointed out above, the above-described structure of the punch means 18 is identical for the remaining punches 14, 16 and 20. All of these punches can be actuated with a system which is shown in FIG. 6, and although this system is shown only for the punch means 18, it is to be understood that the identical system is connected in an identical manner to all of the punch means for actuatin g them simultaneously.

Thus, referring to FIG. 6, the air which is forced into the apparatus to be compressed so as to drive the various pistons in the various cylinders enters through a filter 64 from any suitable compressor where the air is at a relatively high pressure. From the filter 64, the air is received in a suitable regulator 66 which regulates the air pressure, on the order of 80 lbs. for example. The air which is released from the regulator 66 flows through a lubricating unit 68 along part of the apparatus in a manner described below, and some of this air, is received in a low-pressure regulator 70 which may provide air at a pressure of 20 lbs., for example. Some of the air from the regulator 66 reaches an air conduit 72 before reaching the low-pressure regulator 70, and this conduit 72 delivers the air to a foot valve 74 and through a branch 76 to a valve 78. From the valve 78 the compressed air is capable of flowing through a suitable conduit structure 80 to the pneumatic assemblies 52 and 56 described above and shown in FIG. 3. While the assembly 56 pulls on the fork 30, it is shown schematically in FIG. 6 as capable of pushing the fork 30. After flowing through the pedalactuated valve 74, the air flows along a conduit 82 so as to reach the pneumatic cylinder-and-piston assembly 44 which has also been described above. The air from the low-pressure regulator 70 flows to a valve 84 which is capable of actuating the pneumatic cylinder-and-piston assembly 60. This latter assembly has also been referred to above in connection with FIG. 3.

The electrical network includes any suitable source of condenser-rectifier combination 86 to deliver a pulse from maintained input microswitch 54, described above in connection with FIG. 3. The valves 78 and 84 are solenoid valves capable of being electrically actuated. Thus, the microswitch 54 is electrically connected with the valve 78 which is also electrically connected with a second microswitch 87 capable of being actuated by a member 88 which is fixed to and projects from the punch 62. The electrical circuit further includes a microswitch 89 capable of being actuated by a member 90 which is fixed to and projects from the punch 32, and this microswitch 89 is connected to the solenoid valve 84 so as to actuate the latter. The electrical circuit also includes a suitable transformer 92.

With this construction which is identical for all of the punch means which are capable of being simultaneously actuated from a single foot pedal 74, when the operator depressed the foot pedal unit 74, the valve thereof opens to admit air through the conduit 82 into the upper cylinderand-piston assembly 44 of each punch means. This will result in downward movement of the piston of this latter assembly resulting in lowering of the entire punch assembly. All of the punch means act simultaneously so that the four studs simultaneously penetrate through the goods. As soon as the studs have penetrated through the goods, the element 46 actuates the microswitch 54 so as to actuate the valve 78 to admit air under pressure into the units 52 and 56, thus causing retraction of the several forks and continued driving of the studs by the units 52 so as to clinch all of the studs in the several clinching dies 58. When each punch has reached the end of its clinching stroke, the element 90 closes the microswitch 89 so as to actuate the valve 84 to admit compressed air into the unit 60 which drives the flattening punch 62 upwardly, and in this way all of the clinched prongs are flattened against the underside of the fastened plies simultaneously. At the end of the upward stroke of each punch 62, the projection 88 actuates the switch 87 which now acts on the valve 78 to return the latter to its initial position releasing all of the air under pressure from the pneumatic assemblies 52, 56 and 60, this microswitch 87 also being connected to the unit 84 through the switch 89. Therefore, the punches are retracted toward their initial positions and the fork 30 is returned to its solid line position shown in FIG. 3. As soon as the operator releases his foot from the pedal 74, the assembly 44 returns to its intial position, and the assembly 52 is, of course, then free to continue to return also'to its initial position.

In order to adjust the locations of the plurality of punch means 14, 16, 18 and 20 relative to each other, the structure which will now be described is provided in accordance with the particular embodiment of the invention which is shown in the drawings.

The punch means 14 (FIG. 1) is stationary on the base means 12 and is directly fixed to the latter. However, a pair of guide means respetcviely coact with the pair of punch means 16 and 18 as well as with the base means 12 to guide the pair of punch means 16 and 18 for respective movement along a pair of straight, mutually perpendicular paths, and these mutually perpendicular paths intersect at the stationary punch means 14.

As may be seen from the left portion of FIG. 2, the guide means 100 which coacts with the punch means 16 and the base means 12 includes a pair of angle members 102 fixed at their vertical flanges directly to the upper surface of the base means 12, which is simply in the form of a flat plate 104. A block 106 is fixed to an extends donwardly from the punch means 16, and this block 106 is formed with a pair of elongated straight parallel grooves receiving the horizontal flanges of the angle members 102, as indicated in FIG. 2, so that in this way the guide means 100 guides the punch means 16 for movement toward and away from the stationary punch means 14 in the direction in which the parallel angle members 102 extend. In this way, the punch means 16 is guided for movement along a straight path toward and away from the punch means 14 so that the punch means 16 may, for example, be shifted to the dot-dash line position 108 indicated in FIG. 1.

The punch means 18 is supported on the base means 12 by a guide means 110 which is identical with the guide means 100 except that the angle members 112 thereof are arranged perpendicularly to the angle members 102, thus providing for the punch means 18 a movement along a straight path which is perpendicular to the path along which the punch means 16 is guided. The punch means 18 can be shifted toward and away from the punch means 14 so that the punch means 18 can assume, for example, the dot-dash line position 114 indicated in FIG. 1. It will be noted that the stationary punch means 14 is located at the intersection of the straight, mutually perpendicular paths along which the pair of guide means 100 and 110 respectively guide the pair of punch means 16 and 18. Of course, the block 106 is freely slidable with respect to the base plate 104, and in the same way the block of the guide means 110 is freely slidable with respect to the base plate- 104.

The guide means 120 which coacts with the fourth punch means 20 and with the base means 12 guides the fourth punch means 20 for movement along a pair of mutually perpendicular paths which are respectively parallel to the paths along which the pair of punch means 16 and 18 are guided. Thus, this guide means 120 includes a pair of parallel angle members 122 fixed at their vertical, downwardly directed flanges to the top surface of the plate 104 and extending parallel to the angle. members 102. These angle members 122, which are also indicated in FIG. 4, extend over and slidably guide a plate 124 which is provided with the stepped or shouldered construction indicated in FIG. 4, so that it can slide along the guides 122. At its upper surface, as shown in FIG. 5, the plate 124 is welded to an elongated plate. 126 which extends perpendicularly across and beyond the plate 124 and which is formed with a longitudinal slot 128 which also extends perpendicularly across the plate 124 and the guides 122. The punch means 20 has a bottom wall 130 which rests on the plate 126 and which fixedly carries at its underside a square block 132 which is capable of sliding along the slot 128 but cannot turn in the latter.

Thus, with this guide means 120, the punch means 20 is shiftable along the slot 128 in a direction parallel to the angle members 112 so that it is capable of moving in this way along a straight path which is parallel to the straight path along which the punch means 18 moves. At the same time, the entire punch means 20 is capable of shifting along the angle members 122 in the direction parallel to the angle members 102, so that the punch means 20 also is capable of moving along a straight path parallel to the path along which the punch means 16 moves. With this combination of movements, it is possible for the punch means 20 to become located, for example, at the dot-dash line position 138 indicated in FIG. 1. Thus, it will be seen that the stationary punch means 14 and the fourth punch means 20 are respectively located at opposite sides of a straight line which extends through the pair of punch means 16 and 18 with the punch means 20 located diagonally opposite the stationary punch means 14.

With the structure of the invention, it is possible to locate the several punch means 14, 16, 18 and 20 at the corners of a four-sided polygon. Because the punch means 20 is guided by the guide means for movement along mutually perpendicular paths parallel to those along which the punch means 16 and 18 are guided, with the stationary punch means 14 located at the intersection of the mutually perpendicular paths along which the pair of punch means 16 and 18 are guided, a very wide range of adjustments can be achieved with the structure of the invention, making it readily possible to locate the four fasteners at practically any desired locations relative to each other. It will be noted that these results are achieved while guiding the pair of punch means 16 and 18 each only along a straight-line, and only the punch means 20 need be guided along a pair of mutually perpendicular paths. Thus, while the structure is exceedingly simple, nevertheless, it is highly flexible and gives a wide range of adjustments of the locations of the fasteners relative to each other.

Any suitable set screws or the like are provided for the several guide means to releasably hold the adjustable punches in their adjusted positions.

What is claimed is:

1. In an apparatus for punching a plurality of headed fasteners through a plurality of plies of sheet material, for fastening the plies together, at least three punch means arranged along non-parallel, intersecting straight lines for punching fasteners through the plies of sheet material to fasten the plies together, base means supporting said punch means for movement one relative to another to positions which will locate the plurality of fasteners at predetermined locations, with respect to each other, which are not on a common, single, straight line, each of the punch means having a chute for guiding to its punch, the fasteners (28) to be driven thereby, each fastener (28) having a head and legs, retractable means (30) for receiving and supporting a fastener axially in place directly under a first punch (34) preparatory to being driven, power means (44) for preliminarily advancing said first punch (34) until the fastener has penetrated the sheet material (57), and means operative to retract the fastenersupporting means (30) out of the path of the fastener (28).

2. The combination set forth in claim 1, wherein a clinching die (58) is axially aligned with its respective first punch (34), power means (52) operative to drive said first punch down through a further increment suflicient to clinch the prong legs of the fastener in said clincing die, power means (60') operative to drive a second punch (62) upwardly through aligned bores of support (22) and the clinching die (58) whereby said first punch (34) serves as an anvil, and said second punch (62) engages the clinched legs of the fastener and flattens them against the underside of the fastened plies, and means to restore all the parts to initial positions.

3. In an apparatus for punching headed fasteners through a plurality of plies of sheet material for fastening the plies togetther, an upper punch (34), a chute for guiding to the punch, fasteners to be driven thereby, each fastener having a head and legs, retractable means (30) for receiving and supporting a fastener axially in place directly under said upper punch preparatory to being driven, power means (44) for preliminarily advancing said upper punch until the fastener has penetrated the sheet material (57), and means operative to retract said fastener-supporting means out of the path of the fastener.

4. The combination set forth in claim 3, further com prising a clinching die (58) axially aligned with said upper punch, power means (52) operative to drive said upper punch down through a further increment suflicient 8 to clinch the legs of the fastener in said clinching die, References Cited power means (60) operative to drive a lower punch up- UNITED STATES PATENTS dl th h a1 d b t t 22 th War y mug lgne 0 a Supp and 6 1,517,374 12/1924 Mihnoe 227 11s XR clinching die, whereby said upper punch serves as an anvil and said lower punch engages the clinched legs of the 5 GRANVILLE CUSTER, JR Primary Examiner fastener and flattens them against the underside of the fastened plies, and means to restore all the parts to initial US. Cl. X.R.

positions. 227-78, 140 

